The end of the year is when video game journalists typically fawn over their favorite games of the past twelve months. Nuts to that. Here are five series I don't want to see hide nor hair of in 2012.

Dead Rising
I'm an unapologetic supporter of zombies in video games, and believe there's still a lot of interesting ground to explore with regards to our shambling undead foes. So zombie fatigue is not the reason I want 2012 to be Dead Rising-free. The truth is I just can't get into the series.

Dead Rising has everything I normally like in a zombie game: an open-world design, hundreds of onscreen enemies, and NPC companions that can actually be infected and killed. I even think the time mechanic – where the game is constantly moving forward whether you want it to or not – is pretty cool. These are the reasons I happily bought the first two Dead Rising games, but that hasn't stopped both titles from collecting dust on my shelf after only a few hours of play.

I don't know what it is about Dead Rising's formula that doesn't click with me. Maybe it's the wacky sense of humor, which saps the game of any genuine horror (I'm sorry, but a zombie Armageddon isn't supposed to be funny). Maybe it's the focus on melee combat, which isn't as gritty or nuanced as Dead Island, making every zombie encounter feel repetitive. Whatever the problem is, Dead Rising 2 didn't fix it, and I'm guessing another sequel won't either.

Capcom's release record for Dead Rising also isn't reassuring. The company followed up the release of Dead Rising 2 with Case West ("Hey look, we added Frank West!"), and then Dead Rising 2: Off The Record ("Hey look, we added Frank West...again!"). If there's still innovation to be made in zombie games I don't expect it to come from Dead Rising, and I won't miss the series if it takes a break in 2012.

Gears of War
There's no denying the popularity of the Gears of War formula, and I'm sure if Epic rolled out another sequel tomorrow it would sell like gangbusters. The reason I don't want to see another Gears of War, however, is I'm more interested in the alternative. Epic has squeezed more out of the Xbox 360 than virtually any other developer in the industry, proving just how talented the studio really is. I want to see that ability exerted on something other than alien killing and dudebro dialogue.

As such, I couldn't have been happier with Epic's reveal of Fortnite. The cartoony visuals aren't all that appealing to me, but the Minecraft-inspired focus on building custom structures? With friends? On a console? Yes, please! The indication that you'll be fending off zombie attacks in your newly created base is also intriguing, especially considering Epic pretty much wrote the book on Horde mode. All of these elements are instantly more exciting to me than a potential Gears of War 4.

I'm sure Gears of War will be reincarnated in some form or another in the future, but I feel like sci-fi shooters have done all the innovating they're going to at this point, which makes me think 2012 would be a good year for Epic to focus on something else.

Any Movie-themed Lego Title
I don't bring this up to hate on the Lego games like everyone else. As far as family-friendly co-op games go, the Lego series is great fun. Lego isn't the problem – it's the movie license half of the equation that I'm sick to death of.

What I really want to see Traveller's Tales do is create a game in the spirit of Lego, one that allows players to use building blocks to, you know, build stuff. Minecraft has proven how incredibly popular creation-focused sandbox games are with players, and Lego has been doing it since before video games even existed. Putting the focus on creative building instead of pantomiming popular movies will stop much of the eye-rolling commonly associated with the series.

This is one entry on the list that I already know is doomed. Traveller's Tales has announced it's working on another Batman title, as well as a new Lord of the Rings series – looks like we'll have plenty of Lego Gollum in our future. To its credit, the developer is also working on Lego City Stories, a more open-world title for the 3DS and Wii U, but we'll have to wait and see if it satisfies the urge to build stuff out of everyone's favorite plastic blocks.